Eurostar: beyond belief

I am at a complete loss to understand Eurostar's attitude to their customers.

Faced with problems moving their trains through the Channel Tunnel*, their reaction has been to cancel all services, and leave their customers without any alternative transport. Their website suggests that passengers postpone their trips, or claim a refund. The text shows no understanding of their impact on the lives of their customers and their families - let alone the extra severity caused by Christmas.

Eurostar are now offering some compensation (including hotels, but only local transport) to those they have abandoned - there was no mention of this for many hours after they first stopped running. But amazingly, there is no sign of any effort to help their customers travel by alternative means.

This is a company that operates a large fleet of trains, none of which are currently stuck in the tunnel. They may need one or two to test technical solutions, but the vast bulk of the fleet is surely available to move customers between London and Ashford or Dover, and between Calais or Boulogne and Paris/Brussels. Vehicle shuttles (which carry coaches) and ferries are still running across the channel - so it should be perfectly possible to transport their customers between their start and end points, even though it would clearly take longer than normal.

But no, Eurostar have decided that passengers (who don't have any trains at their disposal, and lack the economies of scale to hire coaches or negotiate ferry/shuttle transit) are better placed to fix up replacement transport.

Is this a calculated decision by a company that thinks it has a strong enough monopoly to allow them to treat customers badly, or are they simply out of their depth?

*Note for anyone reading this later:
Very cold weather in Kent and northern France saw Eurostar trains failing as they entered or exited the tunnel due to the change in temperature between cold outside and warm tunnel.